HomeLPC

Housing is recovering in sales and prices, but one segment is stubbornly weak and getting weaker. The share of first-time buyers fell to the lowest level in nearly three decades, just 32 percent of all purchases, according to the National Association of Realtors’ annual profile of buyers and sellers. Investors are not included in the survey.

At the same time, the share of buyers saying their primary reason for buying was the simple desire to own rose overall and most dramatically among first-time purchasers.

“There are several reasons why there should be more first-time buyers reaching the market, including persistently low mortgage rates, healthy job prospects for those college-educated, and the fact that renting is becoming more unaffordable in many areas,” said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors’ chief economist. “Unfortunately, there are just as many high hurdles slowing first-time buyers down. Increasing rents and home prices are impeding their ability to save for a down payment, there’s scarce inventory for new and existing-homes in their price range, and it’s still too difficult for some to get a mortgage.”

Several concrete signs lately point to a broad-based housing recovery across the nation: Home sales are increasing, prices are rising, credit access is gradually easing and private capital is slowly coming back. But not everything is back to normal: credit availability is still very tight, delinquencies are still elevated and taxpayers still back the overwhelming majority of the mortgage market. With such contradictions and no single indicator of market health, how will we know when the market has recovered enough?…

New mortgages for purchasing homes are churning out at a fast clip, with the borrowers getting those loans having some of the highest credit scores ever. Because credit is favoring a smaller segment of borrowers, the result is that loan performance is arguably the best in history.

Purchase mortgage originations in the second quarter of this year were up 15 percent from a year ago, according to Black Knight Financial Services. June, the height of the spring sales season, saw the largest purchase loan volume since 2007, due to a high volume of sales.

As cash-heavy investors move out, mortgage-dependent borrowers are moving in. Cash sales made up about 30 percent of total home sales in July, the latest reading, down from 34 percent in July 2014. It is at the lowest level in nine years…

Fort Wayne Journal GazetteLease-purchases face hurdles | Home and Garden | Journal GazetteFort Wayne Journal GazetteKaren Coffey recalls one day when she took a client through a new rent-to-own home on Hanna Street, built by Decatur-based Ideal Suburban Homes. He couldn’t get over it, she says. “He kept saying, ‘This is so nice! Mine will be nice as this?’ I said … …read more

OPED: Dodd-Frank Act law has done more harm than good for consumersMineral Wells IndexThese potential borrowers aren’t being denied mortgage loans because they can’t afford them; rather, the community banks that would normally offer them a loan simply aren’t in the business of lending anymore. Dodd-Frank has made these banks reassess …and more

Buy or rent-to-own? Review finds little difference in ForsythWinston-Salem JournalThe average monthly cost for a rent-to-own home was $1,059 in May, down $7 from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac, a national real-estate research firm. Buy or rent to own? Durham County was recommended as a “buy” housing market. The average …

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When the financial crisis hit in 2007, the world changed—not just for the big banks and brokers, but also for everyday folks looking to own the roof over their heads. While we’ve thankfully rebounded from the depths of the crisis, there’s little doubt we’re still living through a genuine home ownership crisis.

Today, aspiring Americans from all walks of life struggle to get mortgage loans, whether to buy a new home or refinance. To give you a sense of just how tough it’s become, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, our nation’s most famous banker for the past eight years, was recently denied a mortgage to refinance his home http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/03/real_estate/bernanke-refinance.

Although he makes a reported $250,000 per speaking appearance, he no longer has a day-to-day paycheck—W-2 income—and that’s a red flag for today’s risk-conscious, computerized mortgage approval process. You can imagine how the average citizen is faring. In 2012, close to $100 billion of mortgage applications were denied by the GSEs. That includes approximately 250,000 households who would have qualified for mortgage financing just 20 years ago are now turned down every year (source: HomeLPC estimate). These denied applicants are light years from the no-job, no-income NINJA approvals at the height of the boom.

As of December 2013, the average denied applicant by a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or other government-sponsored enterprise had a FICO score of 725, debt-to-income ratio of a comfortable 26% and were prepared to make a generous down payment of 19% percent. On average, applicants denied in 2012 were as creditworthy as approved borrowers from 2002 (source Ellie Mae).

So should folks just wave the white flag and give up on buying a home?

The answer is an unequivocal ‘no,’ as there’s far more they can do than they may realize. For starters, build up and improve your credit. It’s a process, but there are numerous resources available, from personal credit counselors to support from your local bank. You should also make sure you understand the mortgage approval process, that is, what banks are looking for and why. And there are numerous resources that can help, (http://knowyouroptions.com/news/credit-coaching-modification-success). The more you know, the better prepared you will be to apply and be approved.

Finally, there are alternatives to put you on the road to home ownership faster. In recent years, several real estate investment firms, including our company, HomeLPC, have launched to help keep Americans’ home ownership dreams alive. For qualified applicants, these investment companies will purchase the home of their choice, then lease it to them until they are ready to buy. As part of the process, the aspiring homeowner makes an option-to-buy payment, and potentially benefits from home value appreciation along the way.

There is of course no single solution or answer to the current home ownership crisis, and each individual, family or household will have to figure out their own road forward. Motivated buyers, however, can take steps to improve their credit ratings, strengthen their applications or pursue alternative routes to home ownership. Americans can still fulfill their dreams to own a home, but until the economy picks up real steam, and banks start lending more freely, it’s not going to be easy—even for the best qualified among us. Just ask Ben Bernanke.

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